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Bridge or not to Bridge?

Hey guys its me again, anyways I got the Westell 6100 and a Encore 802.11b/g Access Point/Router. What is the best setup? Bridge the dsl modem and use my router...or use the dsl modem as default from bellsouth, connect its wan port to a hub/switch and then connect my wireless router to the hub?

Hey guys its me again, anyways I got the Westell 6100 and a Encore 802.11b/g Access Point/Router. What is the best setup? Bridge the dsl modem and use my router...or use the dsl modem as default from bellsouth, connect its wan port to a hub/switch and then connect my wireless router to the hub?

Which one yields best performance?

Whenever I setup Bellsouth DSL for a client and the customer already has a router, I bridge it.. If they don't have a NAT device, then yeah, use what Bellsouth gives ya.

"Nobody's invincible, no plan is foolproof, We all must meet our moment of truth." - Guru

For me whenever I setup PPPoE on DSL ISPs I set the modem to bridge and the router will so the authentication instead so if theres some applications that needs to be done on the router (say port forwarding) or there's some application blocked then it would be easier to pinpoint on what device is blocking it through the internet and it would be easily troubleshot.

Enabled bridge mode on dsl modem and let my wireless router/access point with 4port router to handle the routing. Any other suggestions? Should I reset my AP Router back to Dynamic and rest the modem to factory settings and just connect it via WAN port and let it configure itself? what yields best performance?

Having only 1x device do your NAT is optimal...you don't want the gateway device that your ISP shipped you to be doing NAT...then add your own router which does NAT again..

Either just use the gateway your ISP gave you for your PPPoE and NAT, and connect an access point to that...or flip what the ISP gave you to pure bridged mode, and setup your own router to do the PPPoE.

Which gives you best performance? Try each and compare. Hard to say..dunno what your equipment is.

I always flip the ISP provided hardware to pure bridged mode, and setup my own routers to do the PPPoE and NAT. Because I'm more familiar with my preferred brands of hardware. Performance wise though, if you have average equipment...there's probably not much performance difference. Best is to try each, and compare.